How should we use the public space - Essay Example

This essay deals with public spaces and private interests, which clash to abridge our rights. Let us look for a meaning of the two words ‘public space’. Word ‘Public’ is an adjective which connotes ‘open to all / accessible to all / not private, and, the word ‘Space’ is a noun meaning in this context, ‘an area / expanse’. So in essence, a public space is an expansive area, open to all and one which is not private. Or so, as most of us would like to think. Historically speaking public spaces always existed.

The agoras of the ancient Greeks, the chaupals of the northern India and the temple premises of the southern India, the Hyde Park in London are some of the examples of public spaces where people gathered to participate in public discourses. Public interaction and free exchange of opinions and ideas have always resulted in progress of social, political and economical awareness, for the good of the humanity. Modernization and migration of rural populations to urban areas had a significant impact on the traditional meaning and purpose of public spaces.

Rampant commercialization is encroaching more and more into our open spaces. Large open spaces with natural endowments like trees, brooks, hills, green fields and meadows are now confined to countryside only and are non-existent in cities, towns and suburbs. While the populations are shifting to suburban areas for reasons of cleaner air and peaceful environs, the natural open spaces even in those areas are also being converted to shopping malls, manicured gardens, water sport centers or walking tracks with a toll gate!

These are the neo-public spaces with a private fee, like the neocons with an axe or two to grind. The fast pace of life leaves us practically no time for a stroll round the corner for a quiet chat. With the electronic media blaring its ‘breaking news’ every